Effectiveness of a multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative in reducing door-to-balloon times in primary angioplasty

Abstract

Primary angioplasty (PA) for acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has emerged as the standard of care in hospitals with cardiac interventional facilities. The benefits from the PA are time dependent, but recent data raise concerns regarding the timeliness of delivery of care in AMI and the level of benefit achieved by current standards. We assessed the effectiveness of an extensive multidisciplinary quality improvement initiative in reducing door-to-balloon (DTB) times in PA. The PA process was divided into six separate time periods, which were assessed individually. Subsequent quality initiatives resulted in a dramatic reduction in the mean DTB time (141.3 minutes preintervention compared to 95.1 minutes postintervention; P < 0.001).